BODY
MECHANICS: Is there Life after Countersteering?
In our previous articles on Body Mechanics (Countersteering, Eyes and
Horizons) we've leaned pretty heavily on Countersteering as a way in
which to get your bike to respond quickly when you want to change direction
quickly ( remember Herbert the Intelligent Sheep?). Just in case you've
just walked in, Countersteering is when you turn the handlebar away
from the direction you'd like the bike to turn. In simple terms, the
bike becomes unbalanced and falls away from the direction in which the
wheel is pointing eg turn the bars to the right and the bike falls to
the left - you counter-steer.
But there's a trap in Countersteering. Imagine our budding young Aaron
Slight (waddyamean you've never heard of him? Whereyabin?) decides he's
gonna try this countersteer technique on that tricky corner that tightens
up and always catches him out. He hurtles up to said corner 10mph faster
than normal, tweaks the bars sharply to the right and the bike drops
like a stone to the left. Perfect! - our young hero feels like a real
Grand Prix rider as the bike dives in toward the apex like a guided
missile. But hang on a minute, something's not quite right. The bike
turned in nicely but now it's starting to run a little wide. Just before
outright panic sets in, our young taxdodger remembers the Countersteering
Principle, and pushes out with his left hand sharply to tweak to bars
to the right again, and the bike makes another course correction, coming
back into the apex. Briefly. Our hero relaxes again, but wait.... now
the corner is really tightening up and the bike is running wide again,
worse there's a logging truck looming up in the other lane. With eyes
bulging, knuckles popping , lungs bursting and the seat cover sucked
fair up his sphincter, our young temporary hero applies one final desperate
countersteer course correction and narrowly avoids joining the blowflies
on the grille of the logging truck. With now permanently enlarged eyeballs,
our deflated young hero decides to push his bike around the next corner.
Does all this sound vaguely familiar? You betcha!
What went wrong? Well simply put, our rider misunderstood the use of
Countersteering. What he did was to try to get the bike around the corner
using Countersteering alone, and thus turned the corner into a series
of short, abrupt lines (like an old thruppeny bit coin) rather than
a nice smooth arc. Countersteering is a tool for you to use, an entree
if you like, but it is not The Main Course!
Back to basics. If you don't countersteer, but just lean your bodyweight
to one side the bike will slowly fall in that direction. If you were
to let go of the bars, you would see them turn slightly in the direction
in which the bike was turning. This is the normal steering action of
the bike, and the one we use most often when riding on gently curving
roads.
What our test pilot did wrong was to prevent the bars turning in the
normal steering direction after countersteering in the opposite direction
( I think that makes sense..).
In our scenario, our rider had his left arm stiffened and tense so he
could apply the next countersteer thrust. Because his arms and shoulders
were not relaxed, he was physically preventing the bike from responding
in the proper manner. Having countersteered into the corner nicely ,the
bike wants to respond by turning in on a nice arc, but our muscle-bound
plonker is not letting it happen that way. If he is a bit more intelligent
than Herbert, he'll try it again, this time relaxing his arms and shoulders
after the initial countersteering thrust, allowing the bars to turn
in the normal direction - he'll pass Doohan on the inside , and the
bike will go round the corner like it's on rails!
Riding
Tip: Next time you find yourself running a little wide on a corner,
if you have time, check to see in your arms are bent, and both shoulders
and arms relaxed. The bike may not feel like it wants to lean any further,
but it may be you that's the cause. Relax, unclench your buttocks, and
lean!
PS Bars like drag bars, Wide FLs, or poorly positioned clip ons are
a major source of bound up arms and shoulders - you should be able to
turn lock to lock without dislocating a shoulder or punching yourself
in the guts! Fix it now, before you become a mascot on the grille of
a Mack truck!
